Grants for the Benefit of Homeless Individuals: SAMHSA Program Background and Cross-Site Evaluation Design

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA) Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) Grants for the Benefit of Homeless Individuals (GBHI) program funds grantees to provide services to expand and strengthen treatment to those with substance use or co-occurring mental disorders, link treatment services with housing, and increase the number of those who are stably housed and receiving treatment. In operation since 2001, this U.S. federal program has not previously been evaluated. The evaluation framework assumes four interrelated propositions of a socioecological model in which first, clients are located within the local grantee project site, which is located within the local treatment system and the broader community context. Second, there are interactive relationships among these ecological levels. Third, each level contains appropriate evaluation components (i.e. structure, process, outcome, and cost elements). Fourth, grantees are located not only in their local communities but also in the “virtual community” of the federal program that directly influences grantees and indirectly influences their clients and treatment systems in which they are embedded. The cross-site evaluation includes 137 programs, with an impact study of 25 programs. This presentation presents the evolution of SAMHSA's GBHI Treatment for Homeless Program, the goals of the evaluation and the cross-site evaluation design and methodology developed in consultation with a national expert panel. This presentation is proposed as part of a CSAT GBHI panel.